Maybe The Grass Isn’t Always Greener

This spring started with a whirlwind as my husband (the calm & steady rock of our family) mentioned to me that he was looking at a fixer upper house for us to buy. WHATTTTT??!! Who was this spontaneous stranger I was talking to??? Amongst the little baby stage we were just submerging from, I honestly had forgotten that fixing up a home together had been a dream of mine for as long as I could remember.

Fast forward to falling in love with two houses on the market, late night debates (we won’t call them fights ;)) one offer–which we quickly retracted and a couple of broken hearts. Slowly, over the course of realizing what a fixer-upper house would entail for our family and jobs at this time, was NOT the best decision for our family. Not a “never” but just a “it is wise to not embark on this journey yet” grown up sort of decision for us. So I put away the Pinterest boards and forced myself to stop checking listings every 2-3 hours and made myself stuff the dreams back into my back pockets for another time in our lives. This was a hard time for us, for my adventurous spirit. Let’s just say there was a lot of sulking.

And then, as if the stars aligned (or God knew just the whispers I needed to hear) I ran into the book Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner. It melted my heart and shook my world in all of the good ways. I finished the book in 48 hours (which if you know me, this is quite an accomplishment.) I swear that book was just what I needed.

I came to realize that though it is 100% ok to dream and it is a beautiful thing to want to accomplish them, I also began to discover that in order to dream I had to choose the best dreams for me at this moment. With the busy of three littles, a growing business and a husband working in a ministry position, we wanted to be able to still give to all of these without losing us. Without losing what we felt was worth fighting for.

My dear friend mentioned to me that she had started a gratitude journal and after many obvious signs of my need to focus on the good, I went to the store and grabbed a journal out of the dollar bin (ironically it was titled “The Good Life”.) I began to write down the beauty I did have. I began to WORK on not thinking about the things I deeply wanted but just weren’t in the cards yet.

Erin Loechner, in her book, said that chasing slow is a chase. I am slowly learning that there is nothing wrong with fixer-uppers or fighting to follow big dreams. It just is about focusing on having the right heart. Choosing to stop and ask, why am I chasing this? What if what I actually really want is right here all along. And then the paint brushes and the new light fixtures just enhance the beautiful things I already have. We all have beautiful dreams right in front of us.

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Published by wildjuniper

♥♥♥ about us ♥♥♥
i'm racheal, a displaced southerner from mississippi living in the midwest with my jeff our baby girl nora june.
i'm erin, an original midwest girl. i married my cowboy justin and we have a rambunctious little boy, everett jasper.
june jasper=juniper (and they keep our lives wild!)
we love to dress up with our little lady and little man. we have had so much fun doing this, we wanted to share it with you!
♥♥♥ our passion ♥♥♥
we are two first time moms who love to create. to us, creating gives a sense of purpose. we are inspired by art, design, originality and all things vintage. we want our kids to grow up seeing the world as their blank canvas; to create, to explore, to dream up and to inspire.
we like to change everyday ordinary items into fun and creative pieces. everybody is unique...we'd like to keep it that way!
♥♥♥ contact us ♥♥♥
Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or requests. If there is something specific you want we may have just what you are looking for.
♥♥♥ find us ♥♥♥
twitter
http://twitter.com/wild_juniper
facebook
http://facebook.com/wildjuniper
our blog
http://www.wildjuniper.wordpress.com
View all posts by wildjuniper

Post navigation

hi! we are erin and racheal. together we own wild juniper, a brand that sells our line of jewelry, as well as clothing and small home items. welcome to our space. we hope you feel inspired to connect, create, and rest.

instagram

keep in touch

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.